The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1887-12-14
From the Columbia Daily Rccord.)

AT G,45 last evening the members Of the
Bar Association assembled in the Senate
Chamber at the State House.
After disposing of some routine business
and clccting two new members, MeSsrS.
Paul Hemphill and T. Il. Mcclure of Chcs.
ter, the Association repaired t. the Hall Of
the House OF Representatives. The mem.
bers passed in by couples, the procession
being headed by the Hon. VIM. II. Parker,
the retiring President ~ the Association,
and the distinguished orator of the occa
sion, the Hon. Joel Prcntiss Bishop of
Massachusetts. They were followed by
other distinguished members of the Bar.
In Il few minutes every chair in the House
was occupied, not Il few of them by ladies.
On the Speakers platform were the
officers OF the Association, prominent mem
bcrs of the State and Federal judiciary and
other honorcd guests.
President Parker called the meeting to
order and introduced Mr.. Bishop. Mr..
Bishop is one of the most distinguished
writers on common law in the United
States. His Grafton last evening is tho
first that he has delivered in forty years.
This long absence from the hustings, how
ever, has evidently not impaired his power.
The following is an imperfect synopsis of
MIR. Bishops Grafton.
W. President UHd Gentlemen Of tie .lSSo.
C(IttOH
Responding to your kind invitation to
address you, at Il period of rest from your
severe intellectual laborS, | may seem I'M
grateful when ask you to accompany the
thoughts | am to express with your best
and most earnest thinking. 1t would he
Superiiuous TO request You further, us |
might If you were of any other profession,
to lay aside prcCOnccptions and look at the
questions before us us for the first time.
But he who has learned and practiCcd the
common law !. familiar With the courses
OF fresh investigations, and with reform
ing his opinions whenever truth requires.
Tho topic will be, The Common Law
us a System of Reasoning, How and Why
Essential to Good Government, What Its
Pcrils, and How Avcrted.'
The subject is too vast for u full treat
mcnt. But | do not forget that | am adj
dressing gentlemen accustomed TO thinking
and reasoning, therefore capable of sup
plying for themselves my omissions.
our familiarity with the common law
renders needless any defining of it by me.
But, looking at it as a system of reason,
let me set it for u moment before you be.
side the civil law.
Mr.. Bishop then showed how the Roman
law became Il system Of reasoning, diifcr-
ing from ours in little else than the form of
its growth and development. As in the
countries governed by the COMMON law, so
i'll those governed by the Roman, the
statesmen and Legislators were largely law
gers: that is, they were persons accus.
toned to reasoning upon legal, or govern
mental, things.
In the economy of human life and aSso-
citation, we have. ms thu fairest gifts of God.
love, religion md reason. | need not say
that the last is the greatest. for ii includes
the other two. Where reason, pure and
perfect, prevails, all other good dwclls:
and the place whence it is banished is,
whether in this world or the next, hell.
Let us reason together is the command
of Him from whom both We and reason
proceeded. There is false reasoning; but
true reasoning OnduCtS to all light, to all
prosperity, to all happiness.
While Rome was controlled by mnn who
we've accustomed to reasoning she grew
and prOspcred. But after many years, Che
eternal longing and signing for laHiness, the
same which has wrought immense mis-
chief in our jurisprudence, and which now
threatens to destroy it, prevailed. Justin
ian, whom it is the fashion with us to adore.
finished the work Of mischief. Having
collected what he chose to preserve Of the
writings OF the iuriSts, he consigned the
remainder to oblivion.
The world presents now an exact paral. |
lei to this. There is a little island mon
which the angel Of light rs she flew over il
dropped n spark. Spurping Justinian's
folly, she accepted reason, named it the
common law, and rose TO a power and
glory which mock the very brightest of
Roman dreams. Her navics rule the seas.
her colonies watch the sun in all his course |
around the world, her glory threw off in
one of her flights these United States of
America. But the longing for lazincss has
OF late taken possession of her. And she
threatens to substitute acts OF Parliament
Tor all her common law Of reason; and
make it possible for all ~sluggards and fools
to practice ut her bar and preside in her
courts. If she does it, it requires no gift
OF prophecy to forcsCe that her
ing seas will weep upon the dripping rocks
around that little island a more m0urnful
requiem to her cntOmbCd empire than was
ever before sung over fallen greatness and
glory.
II you ascend the highest tower or noun.
tain.pcak, and in the lOudcst voice ask the
earth why it moves upon its aXis, il can
give you no answer. 1t does not know. In
The earlier ages man did not know. Yet
from the beginning it moved rs it does
Go TO the fishes and birds, and the
facts reveal themselves.
Following instinct, or conscience or
whatever else we call it, man, while living
all nus in society, establishes various
and usagcs. After they become
the court takes judicial cogni
lance OF them as law. Especially it takes
judicial cognizance of reason, and of the
TACT that directly or indirectly it is the |
highest guide Of man. 1t thus becomes
he highest guide of the court, so that our
is dcnominated a System of reason. F"
10 accepts judicial decisions as guides for :
future cases, because reason teaches the i'm. ,
)%ortance of stability and uniformity. =
The process of reasoning was then illus
rated and it was shown that the laws bro. ,
sress consists in discoveries of its Just and :
rue reasons and in correcting old mistakes !
IS to them. ,
In method and results the common.law {
aWyer resembles the scientist in nature. 1
knowledgc of what always existed, and I
physical world of man is progressing. {
80 1t Is under the common law. The law /
discovers, one by one, the laws which '